Distribution Automation（DA）technology is a key technology in the DA management system.This paper discusses the pros and cons of different communication techniques（i.e.

optical fiber communication

power line communication and broadband wireless communication）in DA.Based on the comparison

we further discuss the wireless broadband technique based on Long Term Evolution（LTE）.Finally

we build the simulation platform and simulate two typical scenarios in the application of smart metering（i.e.

periodic reporting and power recovery）.We evaluate the performance of LTE for the business of DA with both FDD and TDD modes.The results show that both the two modes can meet the requirement of Quality of Service（QoS）for the business of periodic reporting resident power consumption.Particularly

LTE-FDD system is more suitable for this business.In the scenario of power recovery after power outage in the residential areas

further optimizations at the wireless side are required for both LTE-TDD and LTE-FDD systems to solve the congestion problem caused by massive simultaneous access of smart metering terminal.